The online studio presence of artist Jeremy Entwistle

clear, hold, build

Documentation of my latest work dealing with degraded infrastructure

“My research as an artist targets both the controversial and formal aspects of who we are as individuals and as a working collective in contemporary society. I rely on age-old methodologies such as welding, casting, and woodworking, but I also employ cutting edge CNC water-jet machining, CNC plasma cutting, and high definition printing in some constructions. The industrial forms, materials, and processes in my work are often channeled in an abstract human scale in an attempt to make direct connections between material, process, and persona. I am also attempting to show that the utilization of these materials and processes are necessary within our society, can enter political discourse, and yet are rarely relished as an artistic edifice.

My recent and continuing research into American policy decisions and their broad implications on our citizenry and beyond, has been a fertile conceptual and aesthetic repository. clear, hold, build is a direct reference to contemporary US military counter-insurgency strategies, but focuses in on the continuing degradation of our domestic infrastructure through a series of free-standing, pedestal, and wall mounted works. These emblems of infrastructure are juxtaposed against imagery of, or references to, military machinery or intelligence technology, which all to often dominates our budgetary priorities. The need to “take back” and “re-build” our critical civil engineering components such as bridge hinges, support girders, and highway systems that are all too often ignored is the nexus of the exhibition. The scale of the free-standing work, with subtle combinations of weathered paint, oxidized alloys, natural and treated wood, and industrial fasteners make the pieces approachable, yet dense and stoic, while the wall-mounted precision road sign installations offer a more cold and calculated interpretation of our current domestic infrastructure crisis. ”